Assemblyman David DiPietro (R,C-East Aurora) has voted against the proposed New York State budget. DiPietro expressed his disappointment with the backroom nature of the deals, continued government overreach, and a failure to halt controversial programs like Common Core and the SAFE Act.

“Any potential good this budget does is outweighed by the overwhelming bad,” DiPietro said. “This budget continues Common Core, and fails to end the Gap Elimination Adjustment. As states continue to flee Common Core, we continue to double down on this social experiment that several states have abandoned or are in the process of doing so. I stand with the teachers of our state, and they deserve better than what they’ve received in this budget. They’re still chained to a failing education agenda and under attack by the governor. After five long years, we had the opportunity to fully fund our schools with an unprecedented bank settlement sum, and we failed to do it. This budget could have done so much more for education, but it failed to live up to expectations.

“This budget also funds the database the state will use on law-abiding gun owners under the SAFE Act. Any budget that funds the SAFE Act will receive a “no” vote from me.

“This budget was contrived behind closed doors with no input from the Assembly Minority Conference. It was forged with the usual players and outside the purview of the media,” DiPietro continued. “As a state, we deserve to know what’s going on behind those doors. Just what is being leveraged in return for what? We deserve a better budget that deals with New York’s true problems. Under-funded schools, an unbearable regulatory climate, and the highest tax burden in the U.S. are the issues we should be addressing. This budget fails to address any of them. That’s why it fails to get my vote.”

Assemblyman DiPietro is the Ranking Minority Member of the Assembly Committee on Small Business, and is the sponsor of Assembly Bill 3943, which authorizes a full repeal of the SAFE Act.